Xiomara Castro: Honduras' first female president sworn in

Thu., January 27, 2022

Xiomara Castro has been sworn in as Honduras' first female president, amid a political crisis that threatens her plans for the impoverished nation.

Speaking at the ceremony, the leftist leader said she was taking the lead of a "broken" country - but vowed to pursue social justice and transparency.

Ms Castro, 62, has promised to tackle powerful drug trafficking gangs and liberalise strict abortion laws.

But her agenda has been undermined by a feud in her Libre (Free) Party.

Ms Castro's husband, Manuel Zelaya, ruled the country from 2006 until 2009, when he was ousted by a coup. She ran for office twice in the years following his removal from power, before her victory in the election last November.

Since then, Ms Castro has enjoyed a wave of positivity among the public. Her arrival marks the end to the 12-year reign of the right-wing National Party, which has been plagued by scandals and corruption accusations.

Thousands of people joined the inauguration ceremony at the national stadium in the capital, Tegucigalpa.

"The economic catastrophe that I'm inheriting is unparalleled in the history of our country," she said in her speech, highlighting the need to restructure the national debt.

But she promised: "My government will not continue the maelstrom of looting that has condemned generations of young people to pay the debt they incurred behind their back."

US Vice-President Kamala Harris was among the foreign officials who attended the inauguration - receiving a huge wave of applause from the gathered crowd.

Ms Harris received a red-carpet welcome in Honduras

The Biden administration hopes Ms Castro will fight corruption, poverty and violence, long-standing problems that have helped fuel illegal immigration from the Central American country to the US.

Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai was also at the ceremony, as Honduras is one of the few countries in the world to have diplomatic ties with Taipei.

Ms Castro replaces the divisive President Juan Orlando Hernández, who has been dogged by allegations of ties to the drugs trade after his brother was jailed for trafficking in the US - claims he has repeatedly denied.

FROM THE ARCHIVE: Has Honduras become a 'narco-state'?

The presidential sash was placed upon her by her preferred choice for leader of the congress, Luis Redondo.

But she takes office amid a dispute with dissidents in her own party.

Ms Castro had reached an agreement with another candidate, Salvador Nasralla, who stood down from the race to strengthen her chances of victory.

In return, Ms Castro pledged to support Mr Redondo, who is from Mr Nasralla's party, as Congress leader. But a group of Libre lawmakers rebelled against the proposed candidate, and aligned with the National Party to vote for one of its members to head Congress.

As a result, the rival candidates have each declared themselves head of Congress - and the deadlock could result in legislative paralysis.

Xiomara Castro Takes Office Today in Honduras

January 27, 2022

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya asume hoy la presidencia de Honduras. (27.01.2022).
By La Prensa

HAVANA TIMES – Xiomara Castro, the first woman ever to govern Honduras, will assume her mandate this Thursday, January 27, in a country hit hard by poverty, emigration, drug trafficking and corruption. Meanwhile, she also must quench the crisis in the Honduran Parliament.

In a message on Twitter, the new Honduran president announced: “it’s the beginning of the Government of the People.”

“Twelve years of struggle and twelve years of resistance. Today begins the Government of the People. Good morning, Honduras!” tweeted 62-year-old Castro. Xiomara Castro is the wife of former Honduran president Manuel Zelaya, whose government was overturned by a military coup on June 28, 2009.

The new leader will officially assume power at 12 noon local time, in a ceremony to be held at the remodeled Honduran National Stadium in Tegucigalpa. Stadium doors opened at 4 am. She’ll take the oath before 29,000 spectators, including guests of honor US Vice President Kamala Harris and Felipe VI, King of Spain.

Thousands of Hondurans from different regions of the country formed long lines beginning in the wee hours of the morning to witness Castro’s inauguration. Castro won a decisive victory last November 28 in Honduras’ eleventh consecutive general elections, following their return to Constitutional rule in 1980.

Castro will be the first woman in the country’s history to assume the Honduran presidency. In addition, her victory under the banner of the Libertad y Refundacion [“Freedom and Rededication”] or LIBRE Party, founded in 2011, marks the first time that a left-leaning party has won power in Honduras.

“God willing that Mrs. Xiomara makes the situation better for the poorest people. (…) Women are our mothers, and a conscientious mother will get the country moving forward,” stated Santos Barahona, a retired Honduran, in downtown Tegucigalpa.
Facing a rocky start in Congress

Deputies from Xiomara Castro’s LIBRE party dissented with her tactical choice for Head of Congress. On January 23, a splinter group met separately, in an effort to forge their own Congressional majority. Photo: La Prensa

Castro won the presidency, but not a majority of seats in the 128-seat legislature. The Honduran Congress remains split between several factions, including the outgoing National Party. In order to move forward with her plans, Castro will need the support of Parliament.

However, her first attempts to cement a Congressional alliance met with disaster, when a group of deputies from her party split off. Two “Congresses” then met separately last weekend, each electing their own Parliamentary President.

Castro supported the candidacy of Luis Redondo from the Honduran Salvation Party (PSH). This had been part of a previous agreement, in order to forge an alliance with that party. The former PSH candidate for the presidency, Salvador Nasralla, had agreed to step down prior to the November election, in order to become Castro’s running mate and thus further assure her victory.

With 30 of the 50 LIBRE deputies supporting Castro’s choice, a reduced group of deputies and alternates met last weekend to ratify Redondo as Congressional Head. Castro then invited him to preside over the inauguration ceremony.

Meanwhile, on the same weekend of January 21–23, a dissenting group of 20 elected LIBRE deputies convened at an alternate site, along with deputies from the rival National Party and the Liberal Party. That group endorsed Jorge Calix, a LIBRE deputy, to lead the Congress.

Calix, who received support from over 70 of the 128 members of Congress, continues to insist that he, not Redondo, is the legally elected President of Congress.

Jorge Calix, deputy for the Libertad y Refundacion (LIBRE) party.

In an attempt to put an end to the crisis, Castro has now offered Calix the position of Cabinet Leader in her new government, but he has yet to accept her offer.

On Friday, January 21, the new president expelled 18 dissident LIBRE deputies from the party, accusing them of allying with the National Party of outgoing president Juan Orlando Hernandez to block the transformations that Castro has promised. Hernandez has been accused by prosecutors in New York of maintaining ties to narcotrafficking. His brother, former Congressman “Tony” Hernandez is serving a life sentence in the United States for that crime. Both brothers deny the charges against them.

“It’s key that Castro be able to form a cabinet made up of those who have honest trajectories. There’s a long history of corruption and ties to organized crime within the outgoing party,” commented the National University professor and political analyst Eugenio Sosa.

Read more feature reports here on Havana Times.

Xiomara Castro inaugurated as first woman president of Honduras, with US pledging support

Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras’ first woman president on Thursday in front of a cheering crowd including U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, who pledged U.S. government support to stem migration and fight corruption.

© Luis Acosta, AFP

Castro’s inauguration ends the eight-year rule of Juan Orlando Hernandez, a one-time U.S. ally who has been accused in U.S. courts of corruption and links to drug traffickers. It comes as her government faces tests over a sharply divided Congress, rising debt and relations with China.

Castro, flanked by her husband, former President Manuel Zelaya, was sworn in at a packed soccer stadium where supporters applauded her vows to fix the country’s massive debt burden.

“The economic catastrophe that I’m inheriting is unparalleled in the history of our country,” a somber Castro said in her inaugural address.

Harris, who was loudly applauded when introduced during the inauguration, congratulated Castro over her “democratic election.”

In a meeting shortly after the ceremony, Harris promised to collaborate on migration issues, economic development and fighting impunity, and said she welcomed Castro’s plans to request United Nations help to establish an anti-corruption commission.

Harris has been tasked with addressing the “root causes” of migration in Central America’s impoverished Northern Triangle of countries, but her trip comes as U.S. President Joe Biden’s popularity at home has waned and his immigration strategy has stalled.

“We do very much want and intend to do what we can to support this new president,” said one administration official.

Castro tweeted that she appreciated Harris’ visit and the Biden administration’s willingness to support the Honduran government.

Sostuve un encuentro con la @VP Kamala Harris. Abordamos temas de interés común, como la migración, la lucha contra la corrupción y el narcotráfico. Agradezco su visita al país y la disposición de los EEUU de apoyar a nuestro gobierno en asuntos prioritarios para nuestro pueblo. pic.twitter.com/yj1DBKF3kv— Xiomara Castro de Zelaya (@XiomaraCastroZ) January 27, 2022

Harris also pledged to send Honduras several hundred thousand more COVID-19 vaccine doses along with 500,000 syringes and $1.3 million for health and educational facilities.

The two did not discuss China, she told reporters.

U.S. officials want to work with Castro both to curb illegal immigration from Central America and shore up international support for Taiwan as part of its efforts to stem China’s influence.

Honduras is one of the few countries maintaining diplomatic ties with Taipei instead of Beijing, and Castro during her campaign backtracked on comments that she might switch allegiance to China as president.

Taiwanese Vice President William Lai attended the inauguration in a bid to bolster ties with Castro’s government. Harris said the two spoke over their common interest in Central America.

Luis Leon, director of the Netherlands Institute for Multiparty Democracy in Central America, said Harris’ arrival was a boost for Castro in the dispute over control of Congress and in addressing Honduras’ weak economy.
“Maelstrom of looting”

Castro said it was “practically impossible” to make current debt payments without a restructuring, after debt jumped sevenfold under her two conservative predecessors.

The country’s total debt stands at about $15.5 billion, or nearly 60% of gross domestic product, an economic problem Castro frequently highlighted ahead of her landslide win in November.

“My government will not continue the maelstrom of looting that has condemned generations of young people to pay the debt they incurred behind their back,” she added.

She vowed to immediately give more than 1 million poor Hondurans free electricity, with bigger consumers subsidizing the cost.

Castro, who describes herself as a democratic socialist, has vowed to tackle corruption, poverty and violence, chronic problems that have fueled U.S.-bound migrants.

But her legislative program has been jeopardized by renegade politicians from her leftist Libre party who allied with the opposition National Party to vote for one of its members to head Congress, breaking a pact with a key electoral ally.

Castro also takes office at a time of controversy for her predecessor Hernandez, who had been a longstanding U.S. ally in immigration and anti-narcotics operations.

U.S. Congresswoman Norma Torres has called for Hernandez’s indictment on drug charges, and for U.S. officials to request his extradition.

But Hernandez may be shielded from extradition for up to four years as a new member of the Central American parliament. He has repeatedly denied accusations of corruption and links to drug traffickers.

Hernandez’s brother last year was sentenced by a U.S. judge to life in prison plus 30 years for drug trafficking.

(REUTERS)

A page turns in Cuba as Raul Castro makes way for next generation

Issued on: 16/04/2021 - 

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel (with his arm raised) stands next to Raul Castro, first secretary of the island's Communist Party, on May 1, 2019 in Havana. © AFP

Text by: Cyrielle CABOT

Raul Castro is due officially to step down from Cuban political life during the country's Communist Party congress that begins Friday. He is expected to cede the post of party secretary-general, the country's most powerful role, to Miguel Diaz-Canel, who took over from Castro as Cuba's president in 2018. The move represents a new step in the transition of power from the Castro family to a new generation born after the 1959 revolution.

More than 60 years after Fidel Castro entered Havana and took power, Cuba is poised for public life without a member of the Castro clan. The 89-year-old Raul, a fellow leader of the 1959 revolution who first took over Cuba's presidency from his ailing older brother in 2006, will attend his final Communist Party congress as secretary-general this weekend. At the close of the four-day event, Castro will hand over the reins to its freshly elected chief, with his protégé Diaz-Canel the favourite in line for the role.

"Raul Castro's departure from political life has been expected for a long time," Cuba specialist Stéphane Witkowski, of the Institute for Higher Learning on Latin America (IHEAL) in Paris, told FRANCE 24. "It represents a step in the process of generational transition between those who lived through the 1959 revolution and the new generation."

"Indeed, the date surely wasn't chosen randomly," the specialist noted, coinciding as it does with the 60th anniversary of the failed landing attempt at the Bay of Pigs by 1,400 anti-Castro paramilitaries trained and financed by the CIA. "It's highly symbolic," said Witkowski.

The transition between generations

Cuba's political transition had already seen a decisive line crossed in 2018 when Castro ceded the country's presidency to Diaz-Canel. The former minister for Higher Education, who turns 61 next week, incarnates a new generation that came of age after the revolution.

That succession, under Cuba's one-party system, was meticulously prepared and, significantly, Castro retained a political role. He remained secretary-general of the Communist Party, a post that had until then been combined with the country's presidency.

A woman wearing a face mask as a precautionary measure against Covid-19 walks by a banner with pictures of leaders of the Cuban Revolution and President Miguel Diaz-Canel (L), in Havana on March 3, 2021. © Yamil Lage / AFP

And yet, according to Cuba's constitution, the Communist Party is the ultimate political force governing society and the State. "It is really the supreme authority that defines political directions during its congress, which is held every five years," Witkowski explained. So even with the powers separate, the party under Castro retained control of Cuba's progress.

Over the past three years, Diaz-Canel's presidency therefore represented continuity, following Castro's lead. His government carried on with the principal reforms begun previously, for instance in moving to end Cuba's dual currency system. In January, Diaz-Canel's government went ahead with vast economic reforms aiming to unify the two local currencies while significantly revaluing wages, pensions and consumer prices.

>> Flashback: Miguel Diaz-Canel, the face of post-Castro Cuba

Diaz-Canel is the favourite to take on the role of new party secretary after Castro. "Nothing is decided. It happens by vote, during the congress," Witkowski explained. "But in all likelihood, it will be him."

What role for Raul Castro?

It remains to be seen what role Castro will occupy going forward. During the party's last congress, in 2016, when asked about his plans for life after politics, he said he wanted to retire to "look after the grandchildren" and "read books like the rest of the historic generation".

Still, it is difficult to imagine Fidel Castro's younger brother completely disappearing from the political stage. "He seems to be in tune with his brother's model," Witkowski said of Raul. "Fidel Castro also gave up his political roles one after the other. He then adopted a neutral status, as an advisor. Indeed, he presented himself as 'a wiseman'. So perhaps Raul Castro will also take on an advisory role, but his intentions so far have not been made clear."

Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz-Canel. © Ismael Francisco, AFP

Former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray, for his part, finds it impossible to imagine Castro totally withdrawing from Cuban political life. "He will always be there,' Alzugaray told Agence France-Presse. "It could become a model similar to what happened in China when Deng Xiaoping no longer had a position but he was still alive and so he had to be consulted on everything. He had the last word."

The most serious economic crisis in 30 years

The new generation at the helm in Cuba will have its work cut out with the island nation facing challenges on multiple fronts amid its most serious economic crisis in more than 30 years.

Weakened by the Covid-19 pandemic that has brought valuable tourism to a halt, and amid US sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, Cuba's GDP plunged 11 percent in 2020. In recent months, Cubans have been waiting hours for supplies as supermarkets suffer shortages.

The country's leadership will also be dealing with growing opposition spurred along by the late-2018 arrival of mobile internet via 3G. In a nation that had previously been among the least connected in the world, the Internet has unleashed expression in Cuba, allowing the population to voice its demands and to take to the streets to demonstrate, phenomena previously unseen on the island. Indeed, one point on the agenda at this weekend's Communist Party congress is exploring a way to be "more efficient in fighting against political-ideological subversion" on social media.

>> Cuba may soon become smallest country to develop its own Covid-19 jabs

"There will be many challenges," Witkowski explained. "In terms of the economy, they need to manage this reform ending currency duality, to reduce agricultural dependence and to keep attracting further foreign investment.

"And they will also, of course, need to continue coping with the Covid-19 pandemic, even though, from a public health perspective, the experience has been relatively positive."

Cuba regularly lauds its management of the crisis, having registered only 88,445 cases, including 476 deaths, among its population of 11.2 million.

"What will also need to be determined is what's next in the revolutionary process. What will become of the process of institutionalising the 1959 revolution?" asked Witkowski.

"Raul Castro is a figure who had an impact on an entire people," said Witkowski. "From now on, Cuban politics enters a new phase. It will be up to this new generation to take up the torch and prove its legitimacy."

This article has been translated from the original in French.

Cuba’s Communist Party appoints Diaz-Canel as leader, replacing Raul Castro


Issued on: 19/04/2021 

Text by: NEWS WIRES


Cuba's ruling Communist Party elected President Miguel Diaz-Canel to succeed Raul Castro as party first secretary, the most powerful position in the country, on the final day of its congress on Monday.

The succession marks the end of six decades of rule by brothers Fidel and Raul Castro, who led Cuba's leftist 1959 revolution, in a transition to a younger generation that worked its way up the party ranks rather than forging itself through guerilla warfare.

Diaz-Canel, 60, who already succeeded Castro as president in 2018, had been widely expected to be nominated first party secretary too. He has emphasized continuity since becoming president and is not expected to move Cuba away from a one-party socialist system.

"Diaz-Canel is not the fruit of improvisation but of the thoughtful selection of a young revolutionary who has all that is required to be promoted to higher positions," Castro said in a speech opening the congress on Friday, his military fatigues contrasting with his protege's civil garb.

Hundreds of party delegates gathered for the party's most important meeting, that takes place every five years to review policy and elect new leadership, in Havana.

Castro said at the last party congress in 2016 it would be the last presided over by the so-called historic generation of those who fought in the Sierra Maestra to overthrow the U.S.-backed government of dictator Fulgencio Batista.

The new policy setting Political Bureau will not include Jose Ramon Machado Ventura and Ramiro Valdes, two other famous proponents of that generation. The party has not yet announced who will replaced Machado Ventura, a communist ideologue, as deputy party leader.

(REUTERS)

 I SAY WATSON;
The shift in power away from Cuba's Raul Castro is finally afoot.

THE IMPERIALIST PRESS VIEW

© ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/AFP via Getty Images Raul Castro and Miguel Diaz Canel in Havana, on May 1, 2016.

The country's Communist Party hierarchy on Monday selected Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel to the powerful position of First Secretary, replacing Raul Castro after he announced his retirement last week.

As head of state and leader of the only political party permitted by law on the island, Diaz-Canel must chart the course forward for the Cuban revolution, now that the guerrilla comandantes who seized power in 1959 have all died or aged.

"Comrade Raul will be consulted on the most important strategic decisions of greatest weight for the destiny of our nation. He will always be present," Diaz-Canal said of Castro, as he accepted the new position.

Born in 1960, the same year the Castro family nationalized all US-owned property in Cuba, Diaz-Canel exudes neither Fidel's charisma nor Raul's authority. While he did a three-year stint in the army, unlike the Castros, Diaz-Canel is a pencil-pushing bureaucrat rather than an olive-green-uniformed revolutionary. That said, he will make history as the first Cuban at the helm of the government and communist party not named Castro.

And knowing how to navigate Cuba's dysfunctional bureaucracy may prove to be a more vital skill than commanding a battalion as even many of Raul Castro's signature proposals—remaking the port of Mariel into a manufacturing hub and unifying Cuba's two currencies—became ensnared in the bog of red tape that seems to plague every endeavor pursued by the Cuban government.

The new Cuban leader has made climbing the ranks in the communist-run system his life work, while enjoying Raul Castro's enduring full-throated support.

"Diaz-Canel is not the fruit of improvisation but a thought-out selection of a young revolutionary with the conditions to be promoted to superior offices," Castro said in his speech on Friday at the Communist Party Congress, which was convened to select the aging revolutionary's replacement.

The Castro legacy

Since taking over the Cuban presidency in 2018, Diaz-Canel has put forward the image of a younger, more dynamic leader‚ one who posts messages on social media and reads from a tablet at government meetings. His policies, however, have been as conservative if not more so than Raul Castro's. It's a strategy bent on assuring the elder generation still occupying key political positions that he will not undermine their revolution.

He will need that political backing to address widespread discontent over a slumping economy, increased US sanctions and increasingly tech-savvy anti-government dissident groups.

Addressing opposition activists who he called "mercenary lumpen," Diaz-Called warned that "the patience of the people has limits."

Some critics of the Cuban government say the transition is really a smokescreen.

"The Castro regime is trying to fool the international community by saying, 'Oh now the Castros are not in power anymore, now a new guy has the reins of the country and is really going to run the country in a different fashion. BS!" said Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL), a Cuban-American Congresswoman who won her seat in 2020 promising harsher sanctions on Cuba.

"The Castros are still in power," she said.

Even if no members of their family hold top leadership positions, there is little doubt the Castros will continue to wield great influence as long as the communist-run government and powerful military they built remains intact.

On Monday, General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, son-in-law to Raul Castro, who heads a sprawling military company that controls state-owned hotels, marinas and infrastructure projects, was for the first time named to the Politburo, the executive committee of the Cuban communist party.

A retirement years in the works

Raul Castro has said for years his retirement was in the works.

Unlike his older brother Fidel, who was head of state for 49 years and planned to stay in office until he died, Raul Castro implemented measures to restrict Cuban presidents to two five-year terms and require them to be under age 60 at the start of their first term.

He will turn 90 in June, the same age of his older brother and mentor Fidel Castro when he died in 2016.

After a mystery illness forced Fidel Castro from power in 2008, he continued to write articles and weigh in on current events. By contrast, Raul Castro is expected to keep a low profile in retirement.

Since stepping down from the presidency in 2018, Raul Castro has made few public appearances. During those with Miguel Diaz-Canel, he lets his successor do the talking.

He spends more of his time in a large well-guarded house, in what had been an upper-class neighborhood before the Cuban revolution, in the eastern city of Santiago de Cuba, close to where Fidel Castro is buried.

When CNN visited Santiago in 2020, residents of the city referred to the house as "punto cero" or "point zero," the same nickname given to the head of state's residence, where Fidel Castro lived his final years in Havana.

While funeral plans for Fidel Castro were, before his death, a state secret, Raul Castro has already erected a tomb in his name beside the grave of his wife Vilma Espín, a fellow guerrilla fighter who died in 2007, in a pantheon to the revolutionaries who fought alongside them.

Raul Castro, rarely giving lengthy speeches his brother once did, gave an uncharacteristically long speech on Friday that lasted more than two hours.

"I will continue soldiering on as one more revolutionary combatant, " he said. "Ready to make my modest contribution until the end of my life."

Tough road ahead for Honduras' new president Castro

 

Former first lady Xiomara Castro will have a tough job on her hands once her expected election victory as Honduras's first woman president is confirmed (AFP/LUIS ACOSTA)

From Twitter

Russell Contreras

RussContreras

Leftist opposition candidate Xiomara Castro claimed victory in Honduras’ presidential election Sunday, setting up a showdown with the ruling conservative National Party which could end their 12 years in power www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-11-28/both-political-parties-claim-victory-in-honduras-presidential-vote pic.twitter.com/qxr4hxj9ok

Twitter2021-11-29 12:20 a.m.

Michael Reid

michaelreid52

Honduras: yesterday's presidential election appears to confirm the overriding trend of anti-incumbency in Latin America, with Xiomara Castro, a leftist, 20 points ahead (with 50% counted) of the candidate of the corrupt ruling party. elpais.com/internacional/2021-11-29/los-dos-partidos-se-declaran-ganadores-en-honduras.html?ssm=TW_CC via @el_pais

Twitter2021-11-29 2:10 a.m.

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya

XiomaraCastroZ

❤️ 🇭🇳

Twitter2021-11-27 4:39 p.m.

Jan-Albert Hootsen 🇳🇱🇲🇽

jahootsen

Here's another important article in the runup to Sunday's presidential election in #Honduras: Could Honduras Shift Left? A Look at Xiomara Castro - by @BrenOBoyle for @AmerQuarterly www.americasquarterly.org/article/could-honduras-shift-left-a-look-at-xiomara-castro/

Twitter2021-11-26 3:38 p.m.

 

12-year wait pays off for wife of former PM

Published:Tuesday | November 30, 2021

Moises Castillo
Free Party presidential candidate Xiomara Castro speaks to her supporters after general elections in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on Sunday.


TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP):

Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the wife of ousted former President Mel Zelaya, has taken a commanding lead in Honduras’ elections, capping a 12-year effort.

If preliminary tallies from the election on Sunday are confirmed, Castro de Zelaya would become the Central American country’s first female president.

Her victory would also mark the return of her family to the presidential residence that they were ousted from in a 2009 coup.

The 62-year-old, three-time candidate has long said, “the third try is the charm”.

She grew up in the capital, Tegucigalpa, but moved to her husband’s rural province of Olancho, known for its cattle ranches, when the couple wed.

Together they raised four children, and during her husband’s 2006-2009 tenure, she played a relatively minor role, overseeing programmes for women and children.

But it was after the 2009 coup, which forced her husband into exile, that Castro de Zelaya came to the forefront. With Mel Zelaya running a sort of government in exile in Costa Rica and later in Nicaragua, it was up to his wife to lead the string of protests demanding his return and re-instatement.

By the time Zelaya formed the Libre, or Free Party, Castro de Zelaya’s popularity was evident among followers of the movement. Besides, the country’s constitution prohibited her husband from running for re-election.

Since 2013, the first time she ran, Castro de Zelaya has been the principal thorn in the side of Juan Orlando Hernández, the current president who won elections in 2013, and then gained the blessings of the country’s supreme court to run for re-election in 2017.

Castro de Zelaya ceded her candidacy in 2017 to Salvador Nasralla, a TV personality who ran at the head of an opposition coalition and claimed to have narrowly defeated Hernández.

After a protracted election filled with irregularities in 2017, protesters filled the streets and the government imposed a curfew. Three weeks later, Hernández was declared the winner, despite the Organization of American States observation mission calling for an election rerun. At least 23 people were killed.

Since then, Castro de Zelaya’s movement has focused laser-like on getting Hernández out of office.

Hernández became a national embarrassment, with US federal prosecutors in New York accusing him of running a narco-state and fuelling his own political rise with drug money. Hernández has denied it all and has not been formally charged, but that could change once he leaves office.

Castro de Zelaya sees it as a campaign to free her country.

“Honduras has been described as a narco-state because of the mafia that governs us, and we have also been described as the most corrupt country in Latin America,” Castro de Zelaya said at a recent campaign event. “People of Honduras, now is the time to say enough of the misery, poverty and exclusion that our country suffers.”

Noe LEIVA, Barnaby CHESTERMAN
Tue, November 30, 2021

Once Xiomara Castro's expected election victory is confirmed, making her Honduras's first woman president, she will immediately face a daunting panorama of challenges.

With more than half of the votes counted, experts say Castro's 20 percentage point lead is "irreversible."

Here AFP looks at the toughest obstacles Castro is likely to face when taking office as head of a country wracked by gang violence, drug trafficking, corruption and widespread poverty.


- Dismantling corruption

According to Transparency International, Honduras is 157th out of 180 countries in its corruption perception index, making it one of the most graft-tainted places in the world.

Under outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernandez, the anti-corruption fight in Honduras suffered several blows in 2020.

Firstly a regional anti-corruption commission was disbanded, then congress passed a new criminal code to lower graft sentences, and finally a special appeals court dismissed charges against almost two dozen people accused of embezzling $12 million of public money.

Earlier this year a new penal code -- dubbed the impunity law -- came into effect that makes it tougher to try people for corruption.

The first task for Castro will be to reverse "all those laws and legislative reforms that previously allowed the current government to protect corrupt officials," said Victor Meza, the director of the Honduran Documentation Center NGO that promotes democracy.

It is a battle that she cannot win on her own, though.

"The issue of corruption and impunity is so strong that it needs outside actors to be able to" dismantle it, said Gustavo Irias, executive director of the Center for Democracy Studies.

- Tackle causes of mass migration

More than a dozen migrant caravans have set off from Honduras since October 2018 in the hope of reaching the United States.

Some of these consisted of thousands of people and former US president Donald Trump at one point threatened to deploy the US military to stop them.

In 2021 alone 50,000 Honduran migrants have been sent home from either the United States or Mexico.

The main solution is to create jobs.

Castro's LIBRE party in its campaign identified "the lack of employment as one of the most serious factors in the expulsion of the population."

Political analyst Raul Pineda says the problem is that even educated people cannot find work.

"They go to other countries because they don't have opportunities" in Honduras.

The Covid pandemic hit jobs particularly hard with unemployment almost doubling from 5.7 percent in 2019 to 10.9 percent in 2020.

Around 59 percent of the population lives in poverty.

- Fighting drug trafficking -

Drug trafficking has become such a problem in Honduras that it even pervades the very top rungs of government.

Family members of Honduras's last two presidents have been jailed in the United States for drug trafficking.

One of the main presidential candidates, Yani Rosenthal served three years in a US jail for laundering drug trafficking money.

Honduras has been branded a "narco-state" over government links to the illicit business.

Drug barons extradited to the United States by Hernandez have even pointed the finger at him.

Migdonia Ayestas, director of the Violence Observatory at the National University says Castro needs to "attack impunity" that sees politicians and criminal gangs working together in drug trafficking.

To do so will involve "the purification of justice agencies, the police."

- Managing foreign relations

The United States took great interest in the presidential poll, sending assistant secretary of state for the western hemisphere Brian Nichols to the country to meet with officials and demand "transparent and peaceful elections."

"The Americans feel they are losing influence in Central America," said Pineda.

"They have a bad relationship with El Salvador, a bad relationship with Nicaragua ... the relationship with Guatemala has cooled a lot, so to lose Honduras would be to lose control of Central America."

The US maintains a military base in Honduras, ostensibly to provide humanitarian aid to the region.

Leftist Castro was rumored to have made overtures to China during the election campaign but Pineda cannot see a drastic change in foreign policy.

"It's not an ideological issue, it's about interests, opportunities," he said.

"China has shown no interest in tightening relations with Honduras.

"The US is the power that we orbit around. They buy 95 percent of our exports, they lend us money so the Honduran economy can survive ... they can maintain the economy of this country so no government is going to fight with them while this economic dependency exists."

nl/bc/mtp

NEWSMAKER-Castro vows to pull Honduras 'out of the abyss' as first female president

by Reuters
Monday, 29 November 2021 
By Gustavo Palencia

TEGUCIGALPA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Honduras' leftist politician Xiomara Castro, who is on track https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/honduras-set-woman-president-leftist-castro-declares-victory-2021-11-29 to be the first female president of the Central American nation, doesn't shy away from making history.

In 2009, she catapulted herself to the helm of a protest movement after her husband, former president Manuel Zelaya, was ousted by a military coup, which pitched Honduras into crisis.

The Liberty and Refoundation (Libre) party emerged out of this movement, and after Sunday's elections it was slated to break a century-long run of governments formed from one of two parties.

Castro, 62, looked set for a landslide victory that would bring an end to 12 years of conservative National Party rule marred by corruption, allegations of the president's links to drug trafficking, and an exodus of migrants.

The second of five children in a middle-class family, Castro was born in 1959 in Tegucigalpa. She earned a bachelor's degree in business administration and later moved northeast of the capital where she raised four children with Zelaya.

Promoting "democratic socialism," Castro wants to decriminalize abortion, reduce bank charges for remittances, create a U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission and repeal new laws that she says feeds corruption and drug trafficking.

"I believe firmly that the democratic socialism I propose is the solution to pull Honduras out of the abyss we have been buried in by neo-liberalism, a narco-dictator and corruption," Castro said in a campaign speech.

MORE DIRECT DEMOCRACY

"Participatory democracy" in the form of referendums and consultations on big policy changes will be central to Castro's administration, according to a document outlining her government's plans. Previous attempts at more direct democracy in Latin America have at times conversely strengthened patronage politics and leaders' power.

Castro will also convene a national assembly that could allow her to overhaul the constitution, a proposal her husband Zelaya initiated shortly before his overthrow. The document is vague on the goal of the overhaul, but mentions guaranteeing social and economic rights.

When Zelaya was president Castro was especially active in policymaking and pushed for social programs and subsidies for poor children, women and the elderly, which helped build her popularity.

She has also run agricultural and timber companies in the private sector.

Despite similarities in policy, Zelaya did not take a big role in his wife's campaign.

"Ex-president Zelaya knows that as party coordinator, he has a relationship of deferential respect to the president," said historian and longtime friend of the candidate Anarella Velez.

Velez added that Castro's strong-willed personality would keep her firmly in control of government.

The National Party, which was beset by corruption scandals, sought to portray Castro as a dangerous radical in order to remain in power.

Yet, while Castro's party Libre is part of the Sao Paolo Forum, an organization with the goal of reimagining the Latin American left after the fall of the Berlin wall, many doubt Castro will adopt extreme policies.

"We might see some cozying up to governments that preach 19th-century socialism, but it will be more a formality than anything else," said political analyst Raul Pineda.

"Honduras depends on trade with the United States and it's so weak it can't survive even a month of economic isolation from Washington." (Reporting by Gustavo Palencia, writing by Jake Kincaid; editing by Laura Gottesidener and Grant McCool)

Honduras Election Front-Runner Vows New Era but Is Tied to Past

Xiomara Castro, headed toward becoming her country’s next president, promises to expunge its legacy of corruption, but change may be tempered by her establishment ties and conservative opposition.


Xiomara Castro during her presidential election campaign in Honduras this month.Credit...Daniele Volpe for The New York Times

By Anatoly Kurmanaev and Joan Suazo

NEW YORK TIMES
Nov. 29, 2021

MEXICO CITY — The Honduras opposition candidate, Xiomara Castro, inched closer to an astounding presidential victory on Monday, promising a new era of democratic inclusion in a nation where despair has driven hundreds of thousands to the U.S. border seeking refuge in recent years.

Ms. Castro, 62, held a 20 percentage point lead over the candidate of the incumbent National Party with 51 percent of the ballot boxes counted. The results of the Sunday vote appeared to show a stunning repudiation of the National Party’s 12-year rule, which was shaped by pervasive corruption, dismantling of democratic institutions and accusations of links with drug cartels.

Thousands of Hondurans poured into the streets to celebrate what they believed was Ms. Castro’s insurmountable lead, shooting fireworks and singing “JOH, JOH, and away you go,” a reference to the initials of the deeply unpopular outgoing President Juan Orlando Hernández.

Many voiced hopes that Ms. Castro, should she prevail, would be able to cure the chronic ills that have mired the country in poverty and desperation for decades — widespread graft, violence, organized crime and mass migration.

They also remained wary of the National Party possibly trying to commit electoral fraud in the results that remained uncounted, given that the party’s leaders may face corruption or even drug trafficking charges after leaving office.

“We will recover Honduras, because we are now governed by criminals,” said Mariela Sandres, a student, who celebrated outside Ms. Castro’s campaign headquarters on Sunday night.

The National Party refused to concede defeat, asserting that it will win once all the votes are counted. But in a positive signal for Ms. Castro, the president of Honduras’s business chamber congratulated her on her apparent victory, offering to work with her on rebuilding the country’s economy.



Supporters of Xiomara Castro in Tegucigalpa on Sunday.

Credit...Moises Castillo/Associated Press

Ms. Castro in some ways represents a break with Honduras’s traditional politics. Her commanding lead, in what has been a largely peaceful election so far, also appeared to present a democratic reprieve from a wave of authoritarianism sweeping Central America.

If the current returns stand, she will become the first female president in a deeply conservative nation, and its first leader to be democratically elected on a socialist platform.

She has promised to rebuild the country’s weakened democracy and bring in all sectors of Honduran society to overhaul a state that has served the interests of a small group of elites since it was a Spanish colony centuries ago. In a speech on Sunday night, Ms. Castro told supporters that she would immediately begin talks with political allies and opponents alike to form a government of national unity.

“Never again will the power be abused in this country,” she said.

Ms. Castro said she would consider legalizing abortion in limited cases and would bring back international corruption investigators who were forced out by Mr. Hernández after they started examining suspected graft in his inner circle.

Yet, Ms. Castro is also deeply tied to Honduras’ political establishment. And her ability to meet campaign promises is likely to be severely challenged by opposition from the more conservative sectors in congress and within her own political coalition.

At her election rallies, Ms. Castro capitalized on Hondurans’ widespread repudiation of Mr. Hernández’s rule. But she has been vague about what her own government would do, beyond showering Hondurans with new subsidies and repealing the most unpopular measures of the current government.

During the closing campaign rally in the business capital of San Pedro Sula, she struggled to remember what those measures were. “What’s that other law?” she asked the crowd, as she attempted to list Mr. Hernández’s policies that she would overturn.

Ms. Castro’s candidacy has been shaped by her marriage to Mel Zelaya, a wealthy Honduran landowner and former president who was deposed in a military coup in 2009, after having tried to emulate the policies of Venezuela’s president at the time, Hugo Chávez.

Mr. Zelaya, who remains a polarizing figure in Honduras, is the founder and the head of Ms. Castro’s political party and has served as her campaign manager. Should her victory be confirmed, he is widely expected to play a prominent role in the administration led by Ms. Castro, who had been living mostly outside Honduras since the coup.



Hondurans vote during the general election in Tegucigalpa on Sunday.

Credit...Fredy Rodriguez/Reuters


The prospect of a shadow government led by Mr. Zelaya could create tensions with Ms. Castro’s more conservative supporters, who voted for her to break with Mr. Hernández but are wary that Honduras could renew its alliance with Venezuela and Cuba.

Ms. Castro’s ambitious socialist proposals could also complicate relations with the United States, which many in Honduras blame for supporting the controversial elections that brought the National Party to power after the coup.

In her campaign program, Ms. Castro called for creation of a Constituent Assembly that would rewrite Honduras’s Constitution. Mr. Zelaya’s effort as president to draft a new constitution was a main reason for the coup from the conservative military and business elites, who feared a leftist power grab in a country that has been deeply allied with the United States.

She has sought to assuage the elites’ fears by courting businessmen, bringing in technocratic advisers, allying herself to center-right parties and meeting with the United States diplomats.

Ms. Castro has also significantly scaled back her progressive social agenda to dampen conservative attacks. After initially supporting abortion ban exemptions, as well as sex and race education in schools, she recently said these policies should be put to public debate, and began to emphasize her Catholic upbringing.

Ms. Castro’s promises to reduce inequality and cut the cost of living will be complicated by the heavy debt burden left to her by Mr. Hernández’s outgoing government. And her plans to root out corruption could be compromised by accusations of graft made against the family of Mr. Zelaya, and the former president’s personal ties to discredited political elites.

The prospects for change in Ms. Castro’s administration will depend heavily on her coalition’s strength in the new congress. The electoral council is yet to announce any results from congressional races.

“It’s going to be highly difficult to govern without a majority in congress,” said Pedro Barquero, the campaign chief for the Savior of Honduras Party, which is allied to Ms. Castro.

Through her campaign staff, Ms. Castro has declined multiple interview requests before and since the vote.

For his part, Mr. Zelaya said he wanted to rebuild good relations with the United States, calling it Honduras’s vital partner.

“I think the U.S. has understood that sectors of their government have brought the country to an abyss” following the coup, he said. “We hope the Biden administration has learned the lesson and are willing to work with us.”

But Mr. Zelaya declined to describe his current position on Venezuela, which since he was deposed has slid into economic collapse and authoritarianism. All he has said regarding Venezuela’s crisis is that “the people have the governments that they deserve.”



Supporters of the National Party, which has ruled Honduras for 12 years, before the presidential election on Sunday.

Credit...Daniele Volpe for The New York Times


More on the Honduras and the Election

What’s at Stake in the Honduran Presidential Election?
Nov. 28, 2021

Hondurans seek a break from graft and despair in an election with repercussions for the United States.
Nov. 28, 2021

A Damning Portrait of Presidential Corruption, but Hondurans Sound Resigned
March 23, 2021

Honduran Leader Vowed to Help Flood U.S. With Cocaine, Prosecutor Says
March 9, 2021

Anatoly Kurmanaev is a correspondent based in Mexico City, covering Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Prior to joining the Mexico bureau in 2021 he has spent eight years reporting on Venezuela and the surrounding region from Caracas. @akurmanaev
A version of this article appears in print on Nov. 30, 2021, Section A, Page 11 of the New York edition with the headline: Honduras Front-Runner Vows New Era, but Has Strong Ties to the Past. 

Cuba inaugurates center to preserve Castro writings

Issued on: 25/11/2021 

A law banning the use of Fidel Castro's image has not stopped the proliferation of posters and murals in his memory YAMIL LAGE AFP

Havana (AFP) – Cuba on Thursday inaugurated a center to preserve the writings of its revolutionary hero Fidel Castro as part of commemorations marking the fifth anniversary of his death.

The Fidel Castro Ruz center in Havana is the first and only Cuban building to carry his name.

A law passed a month after his death in 2016 prohibits the naming of institutions, squares, parks, roads or other public places after the former president and Communist Party leader.

Also banned, in accordance with Castro's wishes, is the erection of monuments, busts, statues or plaques in his name or image -- though this has not prevented the proliferation of murals and placards in honor of the late leader on the streets of Havana.

The only exception to the rule are institutions created solely for "the study and dissemination of his thinkings and work."

Maduro makes surprise visit to Havana as Cuba marks Castro’s death anniversary

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made a surprise appearance in Havana Thursday at the inauguration of the Fidel Castro Ruz centre, which preserves the late president's writings, five years after his death.

© Ariana Cubillos, AP

Maduro, who had not traveled to Cuba since December 2019, accompanied his Cuban counterpart Miguel Diaz-Canel at the ceremony, which was broadcast by state television. With them was Castro's brother and former president Raul Castro.

The Fidel Castro Ruz centre in the capital Havana is the first and only Cuban building to carry his name.

A law passed a month after his death in 2016 bans the naming of institutions, squares, parks, roads or other public places after the former president and Communist Party leader.

Also banned, following Castro's wishes, is the erection of monuments, busts, statues or plaques in his name or image – though this has not prevented the proliferation of murals and placards honouring the late leader on the streets of Havana.

The only exceptions to the rule are made for institutions created solely for "the study and dissemination of his thinkings and work".

'It inspires me'

A national hero for most Cubans, but a villain to the West, Castro fell ill in 2006 and handed power to his brother and fellow revolutionary fighter Raul.

Castro led the revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and is credited with creating Cuba's social welfare system, which provides healthcare and education for all.

Cuban President Diaz-Canel, who took over from Raul Castro in 2018, tweeted on Thursday that Fidel Castro's office at the seat of government, the Palace of the Revolution, "is as he left it on his last day there".

"I try to imagine him in the midst of the hard battles of so many challenging years. It inspires me, it excites me. And I'm still fighting," the president said.

FRANCE 24 / AFP

A national hero for most Cubans, but a villain to the West, Castro fell ill in 2006 and handed power to his brother and fellow revolutionary fighter Raul.

Castro led the revolution that ousted dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959 and is credited with creating Cuba's social welfare system, which provides healthcare and education for all.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel, who took over from Raul Castro in 2018, tweeted on Thursday that Fidel Castro's office at the seat of government, the Palace of the Revolution, "is as he left it on his last day there."

"I try to imagine him in the midst of the hard battles of so many challenging years. It inspires me, it excites me. And I'm still fighting," the president said.

© 2021 AFP

Why Xiomara Castro’s Win in Honduras

Could Address the Country’s Endemic 

Corruption and Violence

BY SONALI KOLHATKAR

 DECEMBER 13, 2021
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“I am overwhelmed with joy; I just cannot believe it,” says Dr. Oriel María Siu speaking to me from the city of San Pedro Sula the day after Hondurans like herself voted in presidential elections. Siu was ecstatic to learn that Xiomara Castro de Zelaya had an insurmountable lead over Nasry Asfura, the candidate representing the incumbent conservative party. Castro, the wife of ousted former president Manuel Zelaya, is a democratic socialist and will become the first woman president of Honduras. She triumphantly told her supporters, “Today the people have made justice. We have reversed authoritarianism.”

Castro was referring to the 12 years of repressive rule by the National Party, which took power after Zelaya was ousted in a 2009 military coupthat, as per Siu, “the United States orchestrated.” Years after the coup, Hillary Clinton, who was the U.S. state secretary at the time of the coup, justified Zelaya’s removal, saying in a 2016 interview, “I didn’t like the way it looked or the way they did it but they had a very strong argument that they had followed the constitution and the legal precedence.” The Intercept later exposed how U.S. military officers at the Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies assisted Honduran coup leaders in their efforts.

National Party leader Juan Orlando Hernández claimed electoral victory in 2013 against Castro and then again in 2017 against Salvador Nasralla in the face of credible accusations of massive fraud. The man who has been deeply implicated in narco-trafficking in the U.S. (his brother was convicted in a New York court of smuggling in hundreds of tons of cocaine) used the Honduran security forces as his personal militia during his tenure.

Terror and violence reigned across Honduras, and among the many victims of the post-coup era was prominent environmental activist Berta Cáceres, who led the resistance to a hydroelectric dam and was killed in 2016. Another victim was a 26-year-old nursing student named Keyla Martínez, who died in police custody in February 2021 after being arrested for violating a curfew. Her death prompted fresh protests.

Over the years, relentless state violence and corruption swept thousands of Honduran migrants northward who preferred the callousness of the U.S. immigration system to the barbarity of Hernández’s security forces. Conservatives in the U.S. refused to acknowledge the push factor of post-coup violence as a reason for Central American migration.

Still, resistance continued inside Honduras, and, according to Amnesty International, “the wave of anti-government demonstrations has been a constant in the country” in the face of massive repression.

Castro’s win may finally end this dark chapter, and it’s no wonder that Hondurans like Siu are celebrating. “People were expecting the narco-dictatorship to again steal these elections,” she says.

Castro, according to Siu, rose to prominence after her husband’s ouster and “was at the forefront letting people know, nationally and internationally, what was going on” in Honduras. Castro campaigned on a socialist platform and brought together a coalition of what Siu described as “local youth, Indigenous, Black, Garifuna movements” that, after the 2009 coup, “became a very strong social movement attempting to fight against the criminality of [the] corruption, militarism, police presence in the streets and extrajudicial killings” that occurred under Hernández.

Although Castro is the wife of ousted President Manuel Zelaya, Siu insists that President-elect Castro “has a brain of her own and has a platform that is beautiful.”

Suyapa Portillo Villeda, a Honduran American and associate professor of Chicano/a-Latino/a transnational studies at Pitzer College, says that Castro won on a proposal of promising “participatory democracy” and that “she is trying to establish a new kind of pact with the people in calling for a national assembly to rewrite the constitution.”

It’s a bold position considering that former President Manuel Zelaya was on the verge of holding a referendum on the constitution when he was deposed in a military coup. “This is the demand that has been there since 2009 that people have been organizing around, to have a new constitution that would get rid of the Cold War anti-communist constitution that was written during the Reagan era,” says Portillo Villeda.

While the conservative backlash to a new constitution ushered in Hernández’s violent tenure, in many ways, Honduras’ democracy may have emerged stronger as a result. A system that Portillo Villeda describes as consisting of two “oligarchic” ruling parties is now a multiparty system, and Castro has managed to build a formidable coalition among several of them. “This was a very Honduran type of win,” says Portillo Villeda, referring to the grassroots organizing around Castro’s candidacy that included a lot of young Hondurans.

Castro’s win also represents a potential end to more than a decade of repression that includes violent misogyny. “Women here die every day and rapes go without any form of justice,” said Siu, who says she doesn’t dare to walk on the streets after sundown. Honduras has been referred to as, “one of the most dangerous places on Earth to be a woman.”

Since 1985, Honduras has also maintained one of the most draconian abortion bans in the world, and under Hernández’s rule, Congress strengthened the ban. Pregnant people are not allowed abortions under any circumstances including rape or incest. Castro has promised to ease the ban.

The coalition that brought Castro to power includes a nascent feminist movement as well as a new queer and transgender movement working alongside traditional activist groups like unions, as well as Black and Indigenous communities. That is a big reason why Hondurans like Siu are hopeful, saying, “she has the support of historically marginalized communities all throughout the nation.”

Taking her broad mandate from a population eager for change and translating that to legitimate power in a nation whose governmental machinery has been decimated will be Castro’s most serious challenge. “Of course, it’s going to be difficult,” says Portillo Villeda, of the task ahead of Castro. “She’s inheriting a broken country, legal system and Supreme Court and is coming into an empty house that has been robbed.”

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

Sonali Kolhatkar is the founder, host and executive producer of “Rising Up With Sonali,” a television and radio show that airs on Free Speech TV (Dish Network, DirecTV, Roku) and Pacifica stations KPFK, KPFA, and affiliates.